Wireless communication systems of various kinds are known including systems that share, to one extent or another, one or more wireless carrier resources. The latter can comprise, for example, carrier frequencies (including, in some cases, sub-carriers that are borne by such carrier frequencies), time-partitioned resources, spreading code-partitioned resources, and so forth. In many cases involving shared wireless carrier resources, it is incumbent upon at least one of the sharing systems to have a more subservient and secondary role with respect to the use of such resources. By one approach, for example, this can comprise having the more subservient system avoid using wireless carrier resources that are being used by the more dominant system.
As one salient example in these regards, there are proposed local-area systems (such as a residentially-based system) that are permitted to use wireless carrier resources as are also available for use by a wide-area system (such as a cellular telephony-based system) so long as the local-area system's use of such resources does not interfere with any wide-area system end users. In at least some such cases, the control signaling format and structure as used by both the local-area systems and the wide-area system will be essentially (or even identically) the same. This can comprise, for example, both employing a frame structure that includes a preamble section that is followed immediately by a MAP section that sets forth present sub-carrier assignments.
Such an approach can lead to beneficial re-use of end-user platform functionality and behavior. On the other hand, such an approach can also lead to serious conflicts and service disruptions. For example, as both systems in such an application setting are employing a same control-signaling format, the transmission of the wide-area system's MAP will typically conflict with the transmission of the local-area system's MAP information. As such control signaling is usually transmitted across all available sub-carriers of the shared wireless carrier resource(s), this can result in the local-area system having no room to transmit its control signaling and this, in turn, can effectively lead to an inability of the local-area system to actually share the wireless carrier resources in any practical and meaningful manner with the wide-area system.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.